Under the new five-year deal signed Wednesday, students from Stockton's new Atlantic City Gateway Campus will have access to hands-on culinary classes at ACCC's Atlantic City Worthington Center and students from Atlantic Cape will be open to activities in the Hospitality and Tourism Management Studies program at Stockton’s Gateway Campus.

"Stockton University and Atlantic Cape Community College today signed an agreement for a partnership in Hospitality Studies designed to benefit students of both institutions as well as Atlantic City residents.

Under the agreement, students from Atlantic Cape’s Charles D. Worthington Atlantic City Campus (WACC) will have access to activities at Stockton’s Atlantic City Gateway Campus, especially those run by the Hospitality and Tourism Management Studies (HTMS) program. Stockton students will have opportunities to take hands-on Culinary Arts classes at WACC.

Faculty from both schools will explore ways to work together to identify and/or develop classes that can be used in both curriculums, with transferable credits. The agreement also calls for both programs to sponsor and participate in hospitality and culinary arts events for the community.

“Dr. Peter Mora has been an outstanding academic leader and a great partner for Stockton in providing South Jersey residents with access to high-quality, affordable higher education,” said President Harvey Kesselman. “We look forward to building on our relationship with new, complementary hospitality and tourism programs in Atlantic City.”

“I was raised in Atlantic City - that’s my hometown, so this is especially important to me,” said Mora. He added that he was pleased to complete the agreement before he retires on Dec. 31.

He and Kesselman each said their professional relationship and friendship goes deep, and they were proud that it is culminating in expanded educational resources for both institutions.

“This provides paths to opportunity for all of our students,” Mora said. “It’s another avenue for Atlantic Cape students to get to a four-year college and is especially important to Atlantic City students.”

Kesselman noted that Atlantic Cape has “spectacular culinary facilities in Atlantic City,” which Dean Janet Wagner of the School of Business said would help add culinary training to the HTMS program.

Otto Hernandez, vice president of Academic Affairs at Atlantic Cape, said the plan is to provide “more flexibility in scheduling” between the two schools, ultimately enabling more students to complete degrees in less time.

“We will do anything we can to make it a more affordable experience for Atlantic City residents,” Kesselman said.

Stockton’s Atlantic City Gateway Project is a public-private partnership with Atlantic City Development Corp. being built at the intersection of Atlantic, Albany and Pacific avenues, with student residences overlooking the beach and Boardwalk.

The campus will include: a housing and student center on the Boardwalk for about 520 students; a parking garage topped by new offices for South Jersey Gas, with 879 parking spaces for use by Stockton, South Jersey Gas and the public; and an academic building that can accommodate up to 1,800 students.

The university plans to open the Atlantic City campus in 2018 with about 1,000 students and grow from there."